It's been a while since I've written about Jesus.
I know Jesus makes some people uncomfortable, much like a wet bathing suit or sticky vinyl seats on a hot day. But both Jesus and vinyl seats exist, so everyone will just have to live with it.
I am not sure why Jesus invokes so much discomfort. I can mention Buddha in my yoga classes and get lots of great conversation going. When I mention Jesus (at a regular class), people avert their eyes. What is it that is so uncomfortable about being Jesus-y?
I have a theory that so many of us, those raised in the United States, struggle with the idea of Christ because He was a very real man. We've all seen the pictures--long hair, a beard, eyes, nose, mouth. Christ is not exotic looking like the Buddha. He looks like a young Hippie. Like someone we've seen at the grocery store.
He was a man, but with a twist: we are to believe that this Hippie from so long ago was able to perform miracles and then He did the ultimate: raised from the dead and ascended into heaven.
It is all pretty extreme. And we are reasonable people. We don't believe in fairy dust or unicorns. We scoff at miracle products on infomericials; we don't believe anything we can't see with our eyes; and we certainly don't believe that a dead person could live again, in His whole, formerly-dead body.
Because that is completely ridiculous. That is the stuff of delusional people. That is grounds for committal.
So, even some of us who identify with being a Christian sometimes glaze over the sticky little detail of Jesus Christ. And some of us choose to believe nothing or something else entirely, which is absolutely fine with me, by the way. I am not much of a converter: I am more of a live and let live kind of Christian.
But, I am a Christian and by saying that I have to take one gigantic leap of faith and believe that Christ did die on the cross. And then He rose, in His full body and spoke to people, appeared to them as a man in a body. Not a zombie. Not a ghost, but a whole person. And then, He ascended into Heaven. His full body. All of him. Every last bit of him elevated to sit with God the Father. In Heaven--the one place I cannot find with my GPS.
And I believe every last bit of it.
I believe in spite of it being unbelievable.
I know Jesus makes some people uncomfortable, much like a wet bathing suit or sticky vinyl seats on a hot day. But both Jesus and vinyl seats exist, so everyone will just have to live with it.
I am not sure why Jesus invokes so much discomfort. I can mention Buddha in my yoga classes and get lots of great conversation going. When I mention Jesus (at a regular class), people avert their eyes. What is it that is so uncomfortable about being Jesus-y?
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| Who knew? Two Jesuses on one vinyl seat. |
He was a man, but with a twist: we are to believe that this Hippie from so long ago was able to perform miracles and then He did the ultimate: raised from the dead and ascended into heaven.
It is all pretty extreme. And we are reasonable people. We don't believe in fairy dust or unicorns. We scoff at miracle products on infomericials; we don't believe anything we can't see with our eyes; and we certainly don't believe that a dead person could live again, in His whole, formerly-dead body.
Because that is completely ridiculous. That is the stuff of delusional people. That is grounds for committal.
So, even some of us who identify with being a Christian sometimes glaze over the sticky little detail of Jesus Christ. And some of us choose to believe nothing or something else entirely, which is absolutely fine with me, by the way. I am not much of a converter: I am more of a live and let live kind of Christian.
But, I am a Christian and by saying that I have to take one gigantic leap of faith and believe that Christ did die on the cross. And then He rose, in His full body and spoke to people, appeared to them as a man in a body. Not a zombie. Not a ghost, but a whole person. And then, He ascended into Heaven. His full body. All of him. Every last bit of him elevated to sit with God the Father. In Heaven--the one place I cannot find with my GPS.
And I believe every last bit of it.
I believe in spite of it being unbelievable.
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